Officially, I have been taken in as a “Member in Discernment” with the UCC Minnesota Conference. Meaning, I have officially been approved to *pursue* ordination as a minister in the United Church of Christ. Read: “pursue” doesn’t mean automatic (or even assured) ordination; there’re lots more steps to take. But nevertheless, this is is a big step, albeit of many.

Finally, all of YOU were so sweet and awesome and voted on your favorite pair of glasses from Warby Parker last week (and no one even teased me, which I was wholeheartedly expecting!). So very soon, you will be rewarded with my decision on which pair of glasses I’ll be purchasing (ZOMG!), but I’m still working on a little project for the big reveal. I know, it’s terribly suspenseful! But you won’t have to wait long!

Until I reveal my ever-so-dramatic decision, here’s a teaser for you: the glasses in the photo of me and B below (while I like them a lot), are NOT the glasses I have chosen to buy, although they were the obvious frontrunner from your votes. DRAMA!

my friend mandi’s birthday was on tuesday. it was to be the week of weeks, with many plans made to celebrate her birth (it was also selfishly a good way to try to forget that it is february in minnesota).

well, unfortunately mandi showed up to the doctor on tuesday with a sore throat. the diagnosis: mono. i.e., the KISSING disease. (obviously my penchant for alliteration makes it hard for me to not constantly say mono mandi, Mono Mandi, MONO MANDI!)

it’s really kind of hilarious, because we are all in our mid-late twenties. and everyone knows that mono is SO adolescent. maybe it really could be a nice thing, this finding out you have mono on your birthday: even as you age, you feel younger. brilliant.

(done and done: all i want for my birthday this year? mono. august 4, everyone, plan ahead!)

wow. so all of this is to say, we did not have the week of all weeks in honor of mandi, who understandably got straight to work at all the sleeping she needed to do. but we did go to a bar last night for a chill birthday in northeast minneapolis.

i put on my “i-don’t-care-how-pretentious-i-look” face and snapped as many pictures as i could before my self-consciousness got the best of me.

Note that Grain Belt beer is advertised as “friendly.”

Poor Mono Mandi. None of these drinks were hers, even though it was her birthday week. Mono really is an adolescent disease: No Alcohol Allowed.